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KP.2 COVID-19 Variant Mutating and Spreading in China

Members of the Chinese public continue to report more severe cases and sudden deaths in the country despite the regime’s cover-up.
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KP.2 COVID-19 Variant Mutating and Spreading in China
Commuters wear protective masks as they exit a train at a subway station during rush hour in Beijing, China, on April 13, 2020. Lintao Zhang/Getty Images
By Alex Wu
5/16/2024Updated: 5/21/2024
0:00

The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) health authorities recently reported that KP.2, the dominant COVID-19 strain currently spreading around the world, has been mutating in China.

Meanwhile, members of the Chinese public revealed to the Chinese-language edition of The Epoch Times that local COVID-19 outbreaks were more severe than the authorities were letting on, as officials continued to conceal information about COVID-19’s toll.

On May 14, the Chinese regime’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a notice stating that the KP.2 variant was detected for the first time in local cases in Guangdong Province on March 11. According to the state, as of May 12, a total of 25 KP.2 sequences have been reported across China.

However, the CCP health authorities claimed that the proportion of KP.2 is at an extremely low level and that at present, the top three mutant strains in China are JN.1, JN.1.16, and JN.1.4.

Click here to get an update on the dominant variant in the U.S.

Since January, KP.2 has accounted for an increasing percentage of cases globally. On May 3, the World Health Organization listed KP.2 as a COVID-19 variant “under monitoring.”

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On May 13, Zhao Wei, director of the Biosafety Research Center at China’s Southern Medical University, told Chinese state media that the emergence of new mutant strains of COVID-19 shows that the virus has not disappeared in China.

The CCP suspended all COVID-19 testing in hospitals when it suddenly abandoned its draconian “zero-COVID” policy and control measures in December 2022, which was followed by a massive wave of infections and countless deaths across the country.

The Chinese regime has attributed the waves of respiratory infections resembling COVID-19 symptoms in China to various pathogens and other causes, such as mycoplasma pneumonia, influenza A, and influenza B, while deliberately avoiding any mention of COVID-19.

KP.2 (also known as FLiRT) is an Omicron JN.1-derived variant that has independently evolved three additional mutations in the spike protein that health experts say could increase the virus’s transmissibility and ability to evade existing antibodies from previous infection or vaccines. It was first reported in India on Jan. 2.

Members of the Chinese public responded on social media to the CDC’s announcement of the new variant.

“This mutant strain or that mutant strain, doctors have said they are all treated as colds.” one post read. “No matter how serious the epidemic is, they never test whether it is COVID-19.”

Chinese Public Report Ongoing Outbreak

Chinese people across the country have told The Epoch Times that COVID-19 never disappeared from China and that authorities have continuously been concealing the truth about it, leading to a high incidence of severe cases and sudden deaths.

On May 13, Mr. Yan, a villager in Fangzheng County of Harbin City in northeast China, said that the local COVID-19 epidemic was serious and that many people around him had repeated fevers and colds, with symptoms similar to those of COVID-19. Sudden deaths for unknown reasons occurred frequently, he said.

“I also had a fever two days ago and had a cold. The hospital didn’t test it and treated it as a cold, but it couldn’t be cured. Nowadays, many patients have developed white lung. A lot of people have died in the past two years,” he told The Epoch Times. “We are in a mountainous area, and mostly are ground burials. There are new graves everywhere.”

Mr. Yang, a resident of Guizhou Province in southwest China, revealed that since winter, many people around him have been repeatedly infected. When he got sick, the local hospital did not conduct COVID-19 testing. But he tested positive for COVID-19 using a home testing kit. He said doctors still treated him as they would for a cold.

“This has been leading to the death of many elderly people, and there are many sudden deaths of people in their 60s and 70s,” he told The Epoch Times.

Mr. Chen, a resident of Sanmenxia in Henan Province, said that now, there are fewer people with fever and cold symptoms than in March, but there are many seriously ill patients who are still enduring “white lung” after their infection.

Parents with children suffering from respiratory diseases line up at a children's hospital in Chongqing, China, on Nov. 23, 2023. (CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
Parents with children suffering from respiratory diseases line up at a children's hospital in Chongqing, China, on Nov. 23, 2023. CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images

Ms. Sun, a citizen of Baoding City in Hebei Province in northern China, told The Epoch Times that over the past year, many people he knows have had persistent coughs.

“Many people died, but their causes of death were unclear. The hospital only told their families that they died of underlying diseases,” he said.

Mr. Wang, a citizen of Jiangxi Province in southeast China, said: “In the past few years, many people around me have suffered from repeated colds and coughs. Many of my classmates and childhood friends have contracted pulmonary nodules. ... They say that their health is not good anymore.

“A lot of people have died in the past few years, and the funeral home can’t even cremate them all. The local funeral home couldn’t handle so many corpses, so a new one was opened last year.”

Li Yun and Xiong Bin contributed to this report.
Alex Wu
Alex Wu
Author
Alex Wu is a U.S.-based writer for The Epoch Times focusing on Chinese society, Chinese culture, human rights, and international relations.
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